Feb. 14, 2008
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Northwestern's 19 varsity athletic teams had a phenomenal 2007 fall quarter in the classroom, with 17 of them earning team grade point averages of better than 3.00. The overall student-athlete GPA was 3.13, its highest mark in the last 20 years.
In a quarter that saw the Wildcats' fall sports earn a school-record 68 Academic All-Big Ten accolades (including a school-record 18 in football), the entire student-athlete population was hitting the books just as hard. The two remaining squads that did not reach a 3.00 GPA during the fall were within .02 of a point of reaching the standard.
This news comes on the heels of Northwestern's 98 percent Graduation Success Rate (GSR), tying NU with Notre Dame for the highest GSR in the nation according to the most recent data released by the NCAA in October. Also, in May the Wildcats' football team earned the AFCA Academic Achievement Award for the fifth time since they became eligible for the honor in 1998, the most such honors of any FBS school in that time period.